Cultivator



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1'.

C. MENDENHALL.

GULTIVATOR. y No. 394,283. Patent-ed Deo. 11,A 1888.

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C. MBNDENHALL.

GULTIVATOR.

No.394,283. Patented Deo. 11, 1888.

WIT/VESSES:

ATTORNEY,

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CLINTON MENDENIIALL, OF MARTINSBIIRG, IVEST VIRGINIA.

CU LTIVATO R.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 394,283, dated December11, 1888.

Application iiled July 3, l 8 8 8.

To (all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLlN'roN ALIENDENHALL,

of Martinslnu'g, in the county of .Berkeley and State of \Vcst Virginia,have invented a new and vuseful Improvement in Cultivators, of which thefollowing is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a cultivator which shall beadapted for cultivating different kinds of grain and for use upon stonvor stumpyY ground.

My invention consists in a wheeled frame having a series of inclines atits forward end, a shaft supported upon and adapted to travel upon saidinclines, said shaft having the plows connected thereto, a lever foroperating the shaft, by means of which the plows mabv be lifted out ofthe ground, and means for regulating the depth of the plows.

It further consists in the peculiar construction and con'ibination ofparts, as willbe hereinafter fullyexplained, and particularly pointedout in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l represents a plan view of myimproved culti- Vator. Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line 2 2,Fig. l. Figs. 3 and 4. are detail views, which will hereinafter bereferred to. Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation illustrating theconstruction and operation of the spring-shovel.

6 is a detail view of one of the shovelconnections to itssupportingshaft. Fig. 7 is a detail view, hereinafter referred to. Figs.S and t) are detail views illustrating the foot lever and oscillatingtongue, and Figs. l0 and ll are detail views of modified forms ofshovels.

In the construction of my improved cultivator I emplov a rectangular orsquare frame, A, supported upon the axle A and supportF ing wheels l5 B.To permit of the more ready manipulation of the shovels and dragbars,(the construction of which will be presently explaineth) I prefer tovform the axle A with the arched portion A2, as shown.

Upon the front end ofthe machine is arranged a series of inclined bars,C C, the front ends of which are bent downwardly, as at e c, and aresecured in the frame, as at o, while tl. e rear ends of the bars C aresecured in bearing-blocks l) b, as shown. Upon these inclined Serial No.278,945. (No model.)

i bars is supported, and arrangml to slide thereon, a transverse shaft,D.

'lo secure a perfectI operation of the shaft D, it is connected to thebars C b v means of a sliding block, (Irl, in which the outer ends ofthe shaft are journalct'l. In the rear part of the frame A are journaledtwo cross-shafts, E F, to which are connected the plowdlangers G t. rlhepeculiarconnection of such hangers G will be explained farther on.

Supported in the hangers (t (t are the plows G2 and G. ll Il' denotethcdrag-bars, which are connected at thcirlower ends to the plows G2 G3and hangers G G', while their forward ends are coni'lected to thetransverse shaft D. Thus it will be seen that by moving t-he shaft D upon the inclines C the plows will be drawn forward out of the gri'iund,to enable them to pass obstructions, or where it is desired to transportthe machine.

In suitable bearings, c c, upon the frame A, I journal a rock-shaft, I,provided with crankarms i yi, the outer ends of which are pivotallyconnected to forward-projecting arms or ears D', secured to the shaft D.

.I denotes a hub fixed near the center of the shaft I.

K represents a hand-lever pivoted at its lower end in the frame A, as atIf, near the drivers seat, and is provided with the usual rack andspring-pawl, k', as shown. To this lever, as at 752, is connected oneend of a cha-in, L, the other end of which is connected to the hub J, asat j.

From the foregoing it will readily appear that when the lever K ispulled backward, as shown in Fig. 7, the chain L will turn the hub .Iand shaft I and throw the crank-arms 'L' forward, which, being connectedto the shaft D, will draw the same up the inclines and thereby raise theshovels out of the ground; but when the lever is released from itsconnection with the ratchet K`2 the weight of the plows will draw theshaft D down the inclnes and throw the crank-arms L' bacluvard, thelever K forward, wind up the slack chain upon the hub, and lower theplows to engagement with the ground. NVhen said plows are lowered tooperate, it is desirable to adjust them to various depths for plowing.To this end I IOO provide a transverse shaft, M', mounted to rock inbearings e e on the frame of the machine. Upon this shaft l mount one ormore cam projections, N.

By'reference to Figs. f3 and 1L of the drawings the coi'lstruction ofthe projection and shaft M will be readily understood.

Upon one end of the shaft M, l arrange a hand-lever, O, provided with aspring-pawl adapted to engage with a segmental rack, b2, on one end ofthe bearing l). By turning the lever any desired degree in the directionof the arrow the cam N will Vturn against the shaft D and tend to forcethe same up the ineline C. Thus it will be seen that when the cam Nisturned down, as shown in Fig. 3, the shaft D will be at its lowest pointand the plows will have been lowered to their greatest depth. This depthmay be readily decreased by turning the shaft and cam N and forcing theshaft D up to the desired extent, and the cam will be held in suchposition by the pawl n. upon the hand-lever O engaging the segmentalrack b2, as shown. ,Y

By reference to Figs. 5 and (3 of the drawings the peculiar connectionand construction of my spring-plows G2 and G3 and hanger G will be themore readily understood.

As the connections of all of the plows to the cross-shafts D, E, and Fare similar, I shall only describe one of them.

Upon, the shaft E is securely fastened an eyebolt, P, the stem p ofwhich passes Vthrough clip-block Q. This block is provided with agroove, q q, in each side, in which is iitted the hanger Gl This hangerconsists of two parallel bars, g g, connected near their upper ends bythe cross-plate g. This cross-piece tits across the front face of theblock Q, and has passed through it the stem p of the eyebolt P, to whichis applied the nut p, thereby securely fastening the upper end of thehanger G to the shaft E. Pivoted in the lower end of the hanger G is theforked end 7L of the drag-bar Il, which 'has itted between its forkedend 7L the upper end of the shovel-arm g3, the said shovelarm anddrag-bar II being pivotally conn ected to the hangers G by thepivot-bolt g4. Pivoted in the hanger G is a cross-block, S, which hasits forward end formed into a projecting finger, s, and its rear endextended, as at S. T T are two pendent bars, which are pivoted at theirupper ends to the projection S and at the lower ends to the plow-arm, asat t, just in the rear of its connection to the hanger. Upon abase-plate, R, secured to the hangers, is supported a coiled spring,with the usual projecting central rod, fr, and cap-plate fr', the lowerend of which rod o' is connected to the finger s by means of the linkr2. The arrangement of this spring with the shovel forms an importantfeature of this invention. Then the plow is down ready for use, as shownin Fig. 5, the end of the link r2 will rest near the outer end of thefinger s. Now, when the plow meets an obstruction the same will comeinto a position about as is shown in dotted lines, Fig. 5, which willraise the rear end of the pivoted block` S and throw its forward enddown and exert a considerable tension upon the spring R. During thismovement the link yr2 will leave the front end of the finger s and benear the base of such finger, as shown in dotted lines, therebyrelieving the outer portion of such iin ger from too severe a strain.\Vhen the plow shall have passed the Obstruction, the spring and thearms T and block S will pull same back again to its operative position.V\Vhen the plows are raised by means of the lever K, the spring will pullthe plows up under the frame, as shown in dotted lines, Fig. 2.

To permit for the ready guiding of the cultivator along the side of ahill, or for cultivating crooked rows of corn, it is provided with anoscillating tongue, lV, which is pivoted at w to the frame and has itsend XV extending a short distance rearward between the longitudinalbeams A3 A1 of the frame YA. A casting, X, extends over the rear end ofthe tongue and is secured at each end to the beams A3 A4, as seen inFigs. 8 and 9.

This casting is provided with a central hollow hub, as at Qc. Yindicates a foot-lever which has a downwardly-extendin g stem y passingthrough the hub and provided at its lower end with a crank-arm, y',having its downwardly-extending arm y2 entered into the rear end of thetongue XV. Thus it will be seen that when the driver desires to pointthe tongue to either side it is only necessary to operate upon eitherend of the foot-lever to swing the rear end of the tongue. The operationof this construction will be readily understood by references to Figs. Sand 9 of the drawings.

The plows are so arranged that those in the rear shall pass between thefurrows made by the front ones, whereby the soil may be completelybroken, &c.

In Figs. l0 and ll l have shown a peculiar form of shovel. hese shovelsare formed of a nearly square piece of metal and bent diagonally, inorder that they may be used reversibly. In their practicalapplication'they are secured to two of the plow-supports, as shown inFig. l0.

Frein the foregoing description, taken in connection with the drawings,the operation and advantages of my improved cultivator will be readilyunderstood.

lflaving thus described my invention, whatl claim isl. ln a eultivator,the combination, with the frame A, the inclined bars C, mounted upon theforward end of said frame, and the transverse shaft D, said shaftconnected with the forward ends of the drag-bars Il of the plows, of therock-shaft I, jonrnaled in the forward end of the frame, provided withrearwardly-extending crank-arms i, connected to the shaft D, and thelever mechanism, substantially as described, for operating the shaft I,whereby the IOO IIO

sarees s shaft D is caused to travel up the inclined bars (I, as and forthe purpose described.

The combination, with the inclined arms C, supported on the frame, thecross-shaft D, adapted to travel upon said arms C, of the transverserock-shaft M, provided with cam projections N, and a lever, 0, t'orrocking said shaft, said lever provided with a pawl, N, engaging a rack,b2, said lever and cam adapted to impart a limited movement upon theshaft D, substantially as and for the purposes specitied.

In a cultivaior, the combination of the frame A, provided with inclinedbars C at its forward end, ol' the slidingbloeks d, mounted on said barsC, said sliding boxes havin g journaled therein the ends ol the shat'tD, and means, substantially as shown and described, for moving' saidbars and shaft up the incline, substantially as and for the purposesspecified.

l. The combination, with the frame A, the inclines C, and cross-shaft D,havingI projecting arms or ears D', of the transverse shaft I, mountedin bearings upon the frame A, having crank-arms pivoted to the ears D',and provided with a hub7 J, the lever K, pivoted to the frame A at K, achain, L, one end otf which is secured to the hub J and the opposite endto the lever K, and the rack-and-pawl mechanism K for holding' saidlever in the desired position, all arranged substantially as and for thepurposes speciiied.

5. The combination ot the shaft E, the eyebolt P, the block Q, saidblock provided with grooves g g, the plow hanger or supports G, fittedin said grooves, and provided with an apertured cross-plate, g', fittedupon the outer face ot' the block Q, the said evebolt passing throughthe block and cross-plate g and iitted with a nut at its outer end,whereby the block and hangers are secured to the shaft, substantially asand for the purpose described.

(5. The combination, with the drag-bars H, connect-ed to the shat't D,and the hangers G, supported by the shaft- E, said hanger consistingot'the parallel arms G G, a pivotal block secured between said arms, aspring supported by the hanger G, said spring connected to the forwardportion ot' the pivot-block S, andthe pendent arms T T, the upper endsof which are connected to the rear end ot the block S and their lowerends connected to the plowarms in rear ot' their pivotal point, allarranged snbstantia'ltv,as and Afor the purpose described.

CLINTON MENDENHALL.

lVitnesses:

C. C. MOORE, C. H. QUENZEL.

